According to Greek news outlet Ekathimerini, the Greek Foreign Ministry released a statement in which it condemned the inclusion of stones from the “Albanian territories” of Çamëria, which are part of Greece.
The Greek Foreign Ministry denounced the inclusion of the stones as an “action that cultivates and conceals irredentism”:
We condemn the placement, in Tirana’s redeveloped central square, of stones from various regions of the Balkans, including from the Greek region of Filiates.
These stones, on which their regions of origin are inscribed, constitute a work that symbolizes the “unity of Albanian territories” and is clearly a state action that cultivates and conceals irredentism.
According to the Greek government, the design lambasted by Prime Minister Edi Rama and Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj is proof of their adherence to the concept of a “Greater Albania” and will be a “stone obstacle” to further EU integration of Albania:
Even today, unfortunately, dangerous and obsolete mindsets of the previous century are undermining the region’s progress and prosperity, creating a stone obstacle to Albania’s European future.
